Virat Kohli turned 37 on November 5, 2025. The Indian great, who has already retired from T20Is and Tests, is in the twilight of his career. In the recently held India vs Australia ODI series, Kohli was out for 0 twice before scoring a fine 74* in the third match. Several former cricketers have said that if Kohli is fit, he should be considered for the 2027 ODI World Cup. If Kohli does play in the marquee event, it will be his fifth World Cup – the first being the 2011 edition.

Over the last two decades, Kohli’s journey has been highly intriguing.

Mohammad Kaif, who has played with Kohli in the IPL, shared an interesting perspective on how Kohli has changed over the years. A fan asked him whether Virat Kohli has changed over time, and Kaif’s reply was quite detailed.

“Virat Kohli has become a bit calmer now. He is a father. There is a lot of difference between how he was before marriage and how he is after marriage. When I see him playing now – I had met him during an IPL game against Punjab Kings – he hit Kagiso Rabada for a boundary coming down the ground.

Maybe he had scored a half-century and won the game. It was a seaming track. We had a nice chat. He was very calm. He told me that if I had not attacked Rabada early on, he would not have let me play. So I wanted to hit him off the first ball. Abhishek is doing the same thing. When it comes to his understanding of cricket, there is improvement with calmness,” Kaif said on his YouTube channel.

“He still wants to improve his game after having played for so many years.

And he still meets me the same way even now. If he called you a brother before, he will call you a brother now as well. When you meet him off the field, he will remember that he has played with you and will give you that respect. There is no change there.”

Meanwhile, former Australia captain Steve Waugh was effusive in his praise for India’s batting behemoth Virat Kohli, calling the ‘Chase Master’ the “greatest” ODI player of all time and a “once-in-a-generation” cricketer.

Virat, who turned 37 on Wednesday, burst onto the international cricket scene back in 2008 as a promising teenager from the streets of West Delhi.

The batting wizard has reached a stratosphere in world cricket that few have achieved. With a World Cup and two ICC Champions Trophy titles in his trophy cabinet, Virat has redefined the standards of the ODI format.

A bona fide legend in 50-over cricket, Virat – the second-highest run-getter in ODIs of all time – is the fastest to achieve milestones of 8,000, 9,000, 10,000, 11,000, 12,000, 13,000, and 14,000 runs in the format’s history. In 305 ODIs, Virat has garnered 14,255 runs, and with a tally of 51 centuries, he holds the record for the most hundreds by a player in the format.

“Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are two all-time great players. Virat Kohli is probably the greatest one-day player of all time. You want to see them play everywhere. People on the Gold Coast would love to see them play, but they can’t play every match,” Waugh told reporters on Thursday.